{"id":904489,"date":"2025-06-24T16:21:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T22:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=904489"},"modified":"2025-06-24T16:21:18","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T22:21:18","slug":"construction-cases-big-news-for-smaller-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/construction-cases-big-news-for-smaller-cases\/","title":{"rendered":"Big News for \u201cSmaller\u201d Construction Cases"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Christopher G. Hill | <a href=\"https:\/\/constructionlawva.com\/big-news-for-smaller-construction-cases\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Construction Law Musings<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/christopherhill-law.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Virginia construction attorney<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/constructionlawva.com\/fourteen-years-as-a-solo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">solo practitioner<\/a>, I represent many clients that have construction claims that cover the spectrum from $20,000 (and possibly less) to somewhere in the millions.\u00a0 Back in 2011, the Virginia General Assembly updated the General District Court (the court \u201cnot of record\u201d that takes less time and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/constructionlawva.com\/reminder-construction-litigation-expensive-be-sure-its-worth\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">costs less in litigation costs<\/a>) jurisdictional limit from $15,000 to $25,000.\u00a0 Back then,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/constructionlawva.com\/virginia-general-assembly-helps-construction-contractors\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">this was a welcome change<\/a>\u00a0and also seemed like enough.\u00a0 These days, between inflation and the general cost of living, I run into a number of cases that are in the $30,000 to $40,000 range that back in 2015 or so may have been in the $20,000 range.\u00a0 Such cases always started a debate between lawyer and construction client as to whether it was worth the additional fees and litigation costs to chase the extra $5,000 to $10,000 in Circuit Court or simply forgo it and use the General District Courts knowing that the limit on recovery would be capped at the $25,000.\u00a0 Such a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hobson%27s_choice\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Hobson\u2019s Choice<\/a>\u201d should not have been required, but the rules\u00a0<em>were<\/em>\u00a0the rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Luckily, the General Assembly actually did something helpful for the legal system and for both access to justice generally and for the ability to efficiently prosecute legitimate claims that were there at the margins.\u00a0 As of July 1, 2025, the new jurisdictional limit for claims in General District Court will be $50,000.\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lis.virginia.gov\/bill-details\/20251\/SB1291\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Senate Bill 1291<\/a>\u00a0passed and was signed by Governor Youngkin so there is come cause to celebrate for those subcontractors and general contractors that have legitimate and larger claims that previously would have been subject to that marginal gain discussion I describer previously in this post.\u00a0 This is a general limit increase for all claims where before the $50,000 limit had only been increased for personal injury claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While you should always discuss any\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/constructionlawva.com\/anatomy-of-a-construction-dispute-a-wrap-up\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">construction claim<\/a>\u00a0with an\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/christopherhill-law.com\/about-law-office-of-christopher-g-hill-pc\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">experienced Virginia construction attorney<\/a>, and while there will still be those claims at the margins, this change is a good one that should be celebrated by construction pros here in the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When one of your cases is in need of a construction expert, estimates, insurance appraisal or umpire services in defect or insurance disputes &#8211; please call Advise &amp; Consult, Inc. at 888.684.8305, or email <a href=\"mailto:experts@adviseandconsult.net\">experts@adviseandconsult.net<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Christopher G. Hill | Construction Law Musings As a\u00a0Virginia construction attorney\u00a0and\u00a0solo practitioner, I represent many clients that have construction claims that cover the spectrum from $20,000 (and possibly less) to somewhere in the millions.\u00a0 Back in 2011, the Virginia General Assembly updated the General District Court (the court \u201cnot of record\u201d that takes less time&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/construction-cases-big-news-for-smaller-cases\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Big News for \u201cSmaller\u201d Construction Cases<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[172],"tags":[9895,27,12173,357],"class_list":["post-904489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-construction-law-2","tag-advise-consult","tag-construction-law","tag-senate-bill-1291","tag-virginia","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Big News for \u201cSmaller\u201d Construction Cases - Advise &amp; 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